A radiator grille is used to protect the radiator of vehicles against external agents such as dust, mud, fragments of waste etc. A radiator grille generally includes thin slits in a metal or plastic sheet that acts as a barrier against any foreign particles from entering the radiator.
Currently known radiator grilles include a perforated grille member. The grille member facilitates the accumulated chaff to fall off by gravity and vibration. However, the air entering the perforated grill has a direction perpendicular to the grill surface because of which the air tends to press the chaff against the grill surface and does not allow easy movement of chaff parallel to grill surface. This causes grill blockage by chaff and the operator is required to clean the grille member leading to frequent stoppages. Therefore, there is a need for a radiator grille assembly which can self-clean itself so that stoppages can be avoided.
Combined grille and moving screen radiator structures are also well known in the art. In such arrangements the continuously moving endless screen filters the chaff. The screen itself is cleaned by a moving brush at the bottom. Such structures are usually of self-cleaning type but need additional drive and energy for the continuous movement of screen and brush. Other arrangements used for the same purpose are either a radiator fan reversing its direction of rotation at a regular interval or a radiator fan whose blades move around their individual axes at regular interval. In both these arrangements direction of air flow through the radiator grille reverses itself at regular time intervals for cleaning the radiator grille. Both these arrangements require a control system for periodically reversing the air flow which makes them expensive. Moreover cleaning is not continuous. Chaff keeps on accumulating on grill, blocking the grill and reducing air flow to radiator until the direction of the air flow reverses. Also, the fan blades undergo regular stress reversal and to avoid frequent fan blade breakage these arrangements require more expensive fans.
The existing radiator grilles are either unable to avoid clogging by fibers, chaff, leafy materials, etc. which form a fibrous matrix over the radiator grille or they prevent clogging but require additional drives, additional energy input and are more expensive to make and maintain.
In view of the above, there is a need of a radiator grille that overcomes the problems associated with the prior arts.